Govt to charge Rs35 bn as NHP in current fiscal

ISLAMABAD: The government is going to pass the mammoth financial burden of Rs34.927 billion on to the electricity consumers in the head of net hydel profit (NHP) or water use charges (WUC) with effect from July 1, 2015 and to this effect the government will impose net hydel profit of Rs1.10 on electricity unit to be generated by hydropower stations.
WAPDA hydroelectric company to this effect has deposited a petition with National Electric Power Authority (Nepra) seeking the new tariff of Rs3.85 per unit of bulk supply tariff to NTDC (National Transmission Dispatch Company) or CPPA (central power purchase agency) for the year 2015-16. This is virtually 121.26 percent higher than the existing tariff - Rs1.74 per unit.
In another development Wapda has been advised to incorporate NHP or WUC at the rate of Rs1.10 per unit for all hydel power stations payable to respective provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), says Wapda in its petition a copy of which is exclusively available with The News.
“Nepra has admitted the petition and is likely to hold hearing on Wapda’s petition on September 8 or 9,” Mr Safeer, registrar of Nepra told The News. “We will go for due diligence and examine the rationale of Wapda for seeking a huge raise in its tariff,” he said. The KPK government, according to the petition, is currently being paid Rs6 billion as NHP but when it raised the issue of uncapping the rate of net hydel profit, the PML-N government decided to fix the NHP or WUC rate at Rs1.10 per unit.
It may not be out of place to mention here that the government of Punjab at the time of Ghulam Haider Wyne, had decided not to take the net hydel profit on Ghazi Barotha hydropower project and other hydel stations as a goodwill gesture so that the said projects could be built without any hurdle, but Punjab has since been suffering in terms of non-availability of net hydel profit. Now the Nawaz government has decided to pay to Punjab Rs9.526 billion in the current financial year as net hydel profit, KPK Rs18.810 billion and AJK Rs6.591 billion. This means that the huge amount of Rs34.927 billion in the head of net hydel profit will be collected from the consumers.
Theelectricity consumers will also have to pay Rs159 million as IRSA charges in current fiscal year and Rs3.574 billion in the head of Ijara rentals (Sukuk-II and Sukuk-III) marketed by Wapda for Tarbela hydel power station. They will also have to pay Rs5 billion for Diamer-Bhasha dam in the current financial year.
Wapda has shown the revenue requirement of Rs122.552 billion for current financial year 2015-16 as against Rs56.214 billion determined by Nepra for 2013-14 saying the operation and maintenance (O&M) expenses (variable portion) will be Rs1.222 billion, and O&M expenses (fixed portion) Rs11.527 billion. The depreciation cost has been projected in the petition at Rs5.750 billion.